I think I can.....a guest post today on Storywraps

Unwrapping inspiration today...

Inspiration Corner

I’d love to say that I write my books sitting in a quiet room, gazing out over a shady wooded glade while birds sing in the trees and rabbits hope across the grass providing endless inspiration for my musings. However, I’m a single mum with a full time job living in the burbs - so time to sit and muse, let alone a shady wooded glade or even a room with peace and quiet are all not too likely to come by.

The truth is, my son is the inspiration behind all of my Alex, Dragon and Spider books - and the ideas for them come while we're out and about, exploring the world and generally having fun together. All my books so far are inspired by real people, their lives, their stories, their problems - even, sometimes, my own. So I write most of my books on the move, in my head - transferring them into my phone or onto scraps of paper as time permits - while driving from childcare to work, making breakfast and packed lunches or cooking. Then, in lunch breaks or in an evening in the half hour between finishing tidying, while Alex is in bed, before tiredness overcomes me, I type them onto my computer. 

I’m a very lucky writer in many ways. My stories come as images and, therefore, often when I do site down to write, lines have been bouncing around my head all day, so it doesn’t take me long. The quickest I have ever written something was half an hour (including typing it up) and the longest was 3 hours. Re-reads and edits sometimes take longer than writing something in the first place. I’ve also spent an hour editing a story before, only to find, by the end, that I'd changed everything back to what I’d initially written! 

So I sit on my couch, surrounded by kids toys strewn across the floor and piles of ironing (which is what I really should be spending my time sorting) and type my tales - seeing before me fairies, dragons and spiders having adventures and fun, rather than the list of unfinished chores and household jobs that is my reality…and I've got to admit - I much prefer the fantasy. The chores are always still there in the morning, while my imaginings might have wandered away to a completely different planet, never to be seen again!!

A big thank you to Natalie Finnigan, our fantastic international guest blogger here on Storywraps.  

Natalie Finnigan was born in Suffolk, England and re-discovered her love for writing rhymes after the birth of her son, Alex, in 2010. Now writing the Alex, Dragon & Spider series, Natalie has also written some Bespoke rhyming story books.

 Read on and read always!

It's a wrap.